The following are collective highlights, compiled by the new teacher day campers, from day one of Math Camppp 2011:
Beneficial to see the student transcripts and the actual dialogue and thinking that took place when the students were solving math problems. It would be great to see such transcripts included in pre-service math courses;
Need for greater exposure to student thinking and reasoning in pre-service courses;
We as teachers need to actually use manipulatives ourselves in order to more fully understand the thinking and reasoning that takes place when our students are using manipulatives;
It is important to have lists of key questions to elicit further thinking, help students progress to the next level of learning, and consolidate previous learning (eg. open ended questions, scaffolding questions, etc.);
AH-HA! Justification framework! The justification framework is the research that should inform and support assessment rubrics in the classroom and achievement charts within the curriculum;
Interesting to see the progression of math learning from kindergarten to grade 12 (eg. concepts such as the equation of a line (y = mx + b) can be introduced in earlier grades with such activities as the robot game).
And, our creative piece: